CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2017
| Author | Pop, Oana |
|---|---|
| Title | Working Mothers and the Workings of Motherhood: Regimes of Social Reproduction in State Socialist Romania |
| Summary | Women formed a large part of the industrial workforce in Romania until 1989. Manufacturing enterprises accompanied the heavy industry sector, giving rise to various small, export-oriented feminised industries. Not only do factories incorporate the labour force proper, but also the reproductive forces of women. This was often done through control and repression (as in the results of the notorious anti-abortion decree of 1966), but also in the form of institutionalising and socialising reproductive labour: through factory manged cafeterias, kindergartens, nurseries and clinics, industrial enterprises take over and provide assistance in areas traditionally confined to women and domestic work. Soon after 1989, with the collapse of the industrial sector, this system was reshaped, as factory-managed social institutions were privatised or closed down. Women were therefore faced with the difficult, yet imperative tasks of keeping their jobs as well as finding ways to manage the no longer socialised arena of reproductive labour. In light of feminist theory on the social reproduction of labour and of the discussions I’ve had with 10 women who’ve worked in three specific factories both before and after 1989, the purpose of this thesis is twofold: on the one hand, to provide a more complicated analysis of how the reality of socialised reproductive labour played out for women under state socialism in Romania and on the other, to understand how women comprehended, lived through and coped with the systemic transformations that came about with the demise of state socialism.I focus on the narratives of women who worked in three industrial platforms in the city of Cluj, during the 80s and 90s: a shoe factory, a textile factory, and a factory that produced construction materials. The first two employed mainly women, and therefore had a complex infrastructure for reproductive work (their own kindergartens, daily and weekly nurseries, and cafeterias), while the third factory had mainly male labour force, with women working in the administrative structure of the enterprise. |
| Supervisor | Li, Ju; Zentai, Violetta |
| Department | Sociology MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2017/pop_oana.pdf |
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